In a major attempt to empower India's rural poor, the World Bank has announced a $150-million credit through its soft loan window, the International Development Association, for the Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction project.

Expected to benefit over two million households, the project aims to enable the poorest of the poor to participate in decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods and thereby take control of and improve their quality of life.

The Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project builds on the foundations and lessons of the Andhra Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Project, which started in 2000 and was implemented in six districts.

Prior to the project, Andhra Pradesh had the largest number of child workers in India, but since DPIP was implemented, 65,200 children moved from child labour jobs into regular schools.

To ensure that girls in particular are retained in schools, residential schools were provided as an option and have since increased girls' enrollment by 36,000 over the past three years.

Moreover, nearly 135,000 poor families have been provided with opportunities for new livelihoods such as small enterprise and farming assistance.

"The Rural Poverty Reduction Project goes beyond the District Poverty Initiative Project, including an expansion of the geographic area from six districts to the entire state and a sharper focus on the poorer and more vulnerable members of rural communities," said Jeeva Perumalpillai-Essex, task leader of the project.

"We have learned important lessons through the implementation of DPIP in Andhra Pradesh," Perumalpillai-Essex said, adding "it has been gratifying to see that given the right tools and the right context, poor and vulnerable communities can take matters in their own hands."

"In doing so, the poor lift themselves out of a cycle of misery into a cycle of opportunities," he said.

The project addresses the need to strengthen self-help groups (savings and credit groups) at the grassroots level and the convergence of educational, nutritional and health programmes focused on the needs of the poor.

It also targets the transfer of financial and technical resources to community-based organisations, to support projects in social development, community-level infrastructure, income generation and livelihood improvements, and land purchase for development.   

Support to out-of-school children is a component, which underpins Andhra Pradesh's policy to enroll all children in school by 2005. The project will mobilise parents and children to attend schools.

Support to persons with disabilities targets social mobilisation and building of community institutions.

"The inclusion of the disability community into this project will enable us to reach a group from the poorest of the poor, who are usually forgotten," says Judith Heuman, the World Bank's Advisor on Disability and Development.

"The efforts of this project should be duplicated in other states," Heuman said.